June 26

Tradition Over Truth: The Trap of Sectarian Religion

Religious Robots or True Disciples?

… they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. ~ Acts 17:11

Teaching or Indoctrination? Why Most Religious Education Misses the Point. Too many people today are being trained to repeat what they’ve been told, instead of being taught to open the Bible and discover truth for themselves. That’s a serious problem. God didn’t give us His Word so we could outsource our thinking to some religious system. He gave us His Word so we could read it, believe it, and live by it, personally.

If a teacher truly cares about his students, he won’t just hand them a creed or a church manual and say, “Here, believe this.” He’ll put a Bible in their hands and say, “Search the Scriptures.” That’s exactly what the Bereans did in Acts 17:11. They didn’t just take Paul’s word for it, even though he was an apostle. They “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” That’s the mindset every believer should have, test everything by the Word of God, not by someone’s authority or tradition.

When people are taught to rely on human opinion instead of Scripture, they end up enslaved to a system, not submitted to God. They become parrots of a doctrine rather than disciples of Christ. The Bible warns about this. Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day because they “taught for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). Paul said plainly, “Let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). That means if someone’s teaching doesn’t line up with the Bible, we throw it out, no matter how respected they are.

We need to criticizing religious education that doesn’t teach people to think for themselves with Scripture, but instead turns them into mindless followers of tradition or a specific creed.

Real faith isn’t built on blind obedience to man. It’s built on the truth of God’s Word. God never tells us to follow a man. He tells us to follow Christ (John 10:27). And you can’t follow Jesus if you don’t know what He said. That’s why every believer needs to study the Bible for themselves. Not with the goal of winning arguments or becoming a theologian, but with the goal of knowing God and walking in His truth.

Let’s stop raising up people who just inherit religion and start equipping people who actually believe the Bible because they’ve read it, wrestled with it, and submitted to it. That’s what discipleship looks like.

Not indoctrination. And that only comes from the Word of God. Break Free from the System, Study the Word.

Beware a lot of seminaries today teach things that go against the Bible. Some say the Bible has errors or is outdated, but God says all of it is true (2 Timothy 3:16). Some say you need to do good works, be baptized, or follow church rules to be saved, but the Bible says we’re saved by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8, 9). Others say repentance just means changing your mind, not turning from sin, but the Bible says real repentance means turning to God (Acts 3:19). Some even say Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, even though the Bible says our faith is useless if He didn’t (1 Corinthians 15:17). They also try to erase hell or say it’s not forever, but Jesus said it is (Matthew 25:41). Many teach that Genesis isn’t real history, but Jesus believed it was (Matthew 19:4). Some twist the Bible to match what culture wants instead of sticking to what God said (Isaiah 40:8). Others say everyone is God’s child, but only those who trust Jesus are (John 1:12). They act like Jesus never talked about sin or judgment, but He warned people constantly. Worst of all, they say doctrine doesn’t matter, but the Bible says it does (1 Timothy 4:16). This kind of teaching doesn’t help people, it confuses them and keeps them lost.

See: How to Effectively Study and Interpret Scripture

Read / Listen

2 Kings 9:14-10:31
Acts 17:1-34
Psalm 144:1-15
Proverbs 17:27-28

New Testament: Acts 17:1-34

Summary:
Paul and Silas in Thessalonica
Paul and Silas in Berea
Paul in Athens
Paul Addresses the Areopagus

The Truth – Click above for more

How do you know what the truth is?

This is exactly how we are to know the truth. When the Berea people took time to search the scriptures they came to believe the truth.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. ~ Acts 17:11

The people examined the Scriptures daily to verify the truth of the apostle’s teachings. They didn’t engage in arguments or doubt the apostle like the Jews in Thessalonica. Instead, they diligently studied the Old Testament to confirm whether the apostle’s message about the Messiah’s incarnation, obedience, suffering, death, and resurrection aligned with it. Their commitment to examining the Scriptures was unwavering, as they did so continuously day after day. They were eager to hear and accept the word and scrutinize it diligently.